1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an installation for handling the conveyance of a blank from a cutting machine to a stacking device, the cutting machine having a discharge table extending in a plane, comprising at least one cyclically operable conveyor programmed to convey the blank from the discharge table to a position above the stacking device and to stop in this position before releasing the blank. This invention is particularly applicable to cutting machines wherein blanks are cut from strips, especially sheet metal strips, by means of shears or in a stamping press.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally speaking, blanks coming from a cutting machine are conveyed to a stacking device by gravity, for example by gliding along an inclined plane, or by a continuously operating conveyor, for example a magnetic conveyor band which picks up the blanks on the discharge table of the cutting machine and releases them above the stacking device.
To avoid damaging the blanks by friction on the conveyors and/or impacts against stops and guides of the stacking device, French patent No. 88.05599 has proposed conveying the blanks by means of a cyclically operating conveyor whose cycle is the same as that of the cutting machine and whose path is equal to, or a multiple of, the distance between the cutting machine and the stacking device, and to permit the blanks to be released on the stacking device when the conveyor is stopped. To assure the exact alignment of the blank above the stacking device when the conveyor is stopped, it is necessary for the position of the blank on the discharge table of the cutting machine to be always the same when it is seized by the conveyor and that the blank is seized always at the same instant of the operating cycle of the conveyor. This requires a very precise synchronism between the feeding cycles of the cutting machine and the operating cycles of the conveyor. This synchronism cannot always be realized with the desired precision, particularly when retrofitting existing cutting machines.